


you turn me into starlight

by smolsarcasticraspberry



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, OH WELL NEVER MIND HERE IT IS, shallura - Freeform, slightly smutty goodness, somehow i can never resist pouring feelings all over things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 19:14:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16793077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolsarcasticraspberry/pseuds/smolsarcasticraspberry
Summary: based on the prompt "Our brains have special neurons that help us locate each other's lips in the dark".Allura comes to bed late. Shiro waited up for her. in the dark, they turn each other's bodies into starlight.





	you turn me into starlight

**Author's Note:**

> i saw this prompt on tumblr and boom, here's a fic for it, because the idea just really grabbed me. mostly just short and a bit smutty and full of FEELINGS, because that's shallura culture. enjoy, my lovelies.

She came to bed so late that the Castle had already sunk into the sleepy, dim lights of the artificial night cycle. The pile of reports and briefings had sucked her in, and there was so much to be done, and so many notes to make… and before she knew it, she was the last person left awake. Who knew peace could bring even more work than war? But ever since the downfall of the Galra Empire and the tentative end to hostilities, she was inundated with chores and bureaucracy. It was exhausting.

She padded through the darkened halls of the ship, yawning and stretching out the cricks in her neck, until she reached her living suite and stepped inside. The doors closed behind her, and the darkness of the room wrapped around her like a blanket. Shiro lay in the bed, his breathing even and light. Asleep, then. She'd grown so used to his presence that she wondered how she would live without him. He'd leave soon, along with the rest of the Paladins, now that the war was over. No more need for Voltron. They'd all want to go home.

She moved carefully and silently, navigating by feel and memory, stripping off her clothes and pulling on an old t-shirt of Shiro's that she had taken to wearing instead of a nightgown. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she could just about make out the shape of Shiro's sleeping form, curled up in the blankets. She slipped into the bed beside him and pulled the covers around herself.

He rolled over. She heard him in the darkness - the rustle of the sheets and the quickening of his breath.

"Did I wake you?" she asked in a whisper.

His hand found her hip, warm and firm, and she eased in closer to him, guided by the heat of his body.

"I was waiting up for you," he murmured. He sounded only half-awake - as if he had intended to stay up to greet her when she came to bed, but had dozed off in the interim.

"Sorry," she whispered with a smile. "I got caught up in some work."

"Mmm."

She could just about make out the shape of him in the gloom, but the darkness swallowed all the details of his face, and Allura was left to simply imagine his expression: the slight pout, his brows pulled into a tiny frown of disappointment. They knew each other so well by now that just the tone of his voice conveyed it to her.

He was always like this when she came to bed late. Clingy and sulky, because he liked sleeping with her wrapped up in his arms, and wouldn't sleep without her. In their day-to-day life he was never possessive or overbearing or demanding - but here, in the bed they had shared for almost a year now, he made clear just how much he wanted her. And how much he disliked her absence.

"I'm sorry, _marksglow_ ," she murmured. She reached out for him in the dark, and her fingers discovered the curve of his jaw. Her other hand quested towards his chest and his heartbeat - the rise and fall of his breathing, the warmth of his body under her palm. She leaned forward and felt the heat of his breath against her lips, and followed it like a secret trail - like the thread of fate - guiding her towards him so that she could kiss him in the dark.

His hand wrapped around her waist as he returned the kiss with more hunger than she had expected. Perhaps he wasn't so half-asleep after all. He never wore the prosthetic in bed these days, but even with one arm he still pulled her flush into his body with an insistence she couldn't resist. She let her lips part, so that she tasted his tongue in her mouth; his thigh pressed between her legs, and she tangled her hand into his hair, just how he liked it. Without sight, she navigated by touch alone: tracing the arc of his ear, skimming her fingers across the nape of his neck. He tugged the t-shirt off over her head; she slipped her hand into the waistband of his joggers and eased them down over his hips. Her leg over his waist, purely on muscle memory - his hand on her thigh to guide her, the touch sending shivers through her skin.

Usually, they made love with the lights on. But tonight, they explored each other in the dark, every sensation heightened in compensation for the loss of sight. Shiro scattered heated kisses across her skin, like stars bursting into life, each one a love note without words. She ran her hands over his back and chest and smiled at the hitch of his breath; she pressed her lips to his throat and chuckled at the groan that blossomed, unseen, in the gloom.

"I missed you," he murmured in her ear, his hand on her breast, and Allura arched into him - pressed the whole length of her body into his - just to feel it.

"I was only gone a few hours," she chided softly.

He huffed, and she imagined how put-out he must look right now.

"I know," he said. "But I still missed you."

"Well, I'm here now," she said, and she kissed him again in apology.

She pushed him gently onto his back and swung her leg over his waist so that she could straddle his hips, and her hands braced against his chest as she lowered herself onto him. Once, when they had first been together, she had found this difficult to do. The precise alignment of their bodies had proved challenging. They had laughed at their own struggles, though; and Shiro had gazed at her with soft fondness and kissed away any awkwardness she felt. That was the moment Allura knew she would love him for as long as she lived.

Now, it was habitual. Her body knew how to open up to him; how to bring them together. Even without light to guide her, she settled onto him easily. A gasp escaped her, whispering off her lips and vanishing into the dark; and Shiro's groan of delight echoed back at her like an answering call. Habit had not robbed either of them of the pleasure of each other's bodies - if anything, she felt it all the more now. This part - this love - it never got old.

She rocked her hips and found a rhythm, aided once again by muscle memory and the instinctive attunement of their desires. She sent out soft cries into the blackness of their room, and her soft vocalisations found Shiro's answering groans and mingled together, giving shape to the darkness around them. In the gloom, nothing existed but the two of them, summoning each other into being with every touch.

"Allura."

She heard the desperation in Shiro's voice and took him deeper within her, moaning softly as he thrust up to meet the rock of her hips, driving them both half-crazy.

The marks on her skin began to glow - softly at first, their brightness increasing with each surge of pleasure that pulsed through her body. Cheeks first - always the most sensitive to quintessence. Then her thighs and belly, closest to the source of the delightful sensations currently suffusing her body with new energy. The sunburst on her sternum flickered in time with the rhythm of their lovemaking, like a bright heartbeat; and then the crescents around her breasts followed, picking up the pattern as the light rippled out across the curves of her body. Her arms and legs always came last, but as her breath came fast and frantic and the pleasure pulsed deep in her core, even her extremities took on the glow of quintessence.

She looked down, and saw her own internal light bathing Shiro in shimmering pink and white. The marks on his body glowed faintly silver - not as bright as hers, but still enough to illuminate his face. She reached down to trace the sparkling crescents beneath his eyes, and smiled at him.

Once, the glow in his body had frightened him. The first time they ever made love, he was too caught up in the moment to notice it; afterwards, when he looked down to find bright patterns whorled across his torso and thighs, he'd panicked. Humans apparently didn't glow in response to strong emotions. They didn't light up like starlight when they gave their most intimate pleasure to each other. But then, Shiro was always a bit special.

Now, he was used to it. She'd explained the mechanism of it; told him about her people's affectionate term of endearment - _marksglow_ \- and its origin in the brightening lines and marks of their bodies. Fear had given way to wonderment, and now he just found it beautiful. In their shared halo he smiled beneath her, his eyes tracing the glow of her skin, the appreciation obvious in his gaze.

"You look like stars," he murmured, desire softening his voice.

"So do you," she gasped.

She loved taking him like this. Loved the way his hand always tightened on her thigh as he came close to his release; loved the blissed-out look on his face as he watched her unravel them both with the rise and fall of her body. His marks shone and pulsed; and tonight he called out her name as she blazed bright, her pleasure overflowing her in shimmering light, calling him onwards, bidding her follow him into the ecstasy that consumed her.

Afterwards, he cradled her against his chest, and she traced the marks that still lit up his skin. They would fade within an hour, but the faint trace of them would remain, permanently emblazoned on his body. The more they loved each other - the more nights they spent like this - the more visible and enduring the marks became.

She liked it. She liked the thought that their happiness left a lasting mark on him. After all his scars and hardships, it seemed like fair payment: something beautiful and sweet and right, lovingly drawn onto his skin over and over until it stuck. Something for him to take back with him when he left.

"Is this why you waited up for me?" she asked.

He chuckled, and kissed her forehead. "Maybe."

"You could have just sent me a message," she said. "I had my tablet out. I would have seen it."

"A booty call? Really?"

She snorted, and buried her laughter in his chest. He ran a hand through her hair until she sat up to look at him, lying on the pillows in the dark, the only light the lingering glow of their bodies. She traced the crescents on his cheeks; the swirls on his shoulders; the sunburst on his chest that matched her own.

"I love you," she said softly - a promise gifted in the night. Here, in the secret hours when everyone else slept, they always managed to find each other in the dark.

Shiro smiled, warm and unrestrained, and caught a curl of her hair.

"I love you too, _marksglow_ ," he said.

She cuddled up to him, too tired and spent and satisfied to bother redressing. In the fading glow of their bodies, she kissed him again, giving him the last embers of her passion before sleep. He ran his hand through her hair and kissed her forehead, the movement soft and soothing, and she hummed contentedly as her eyes fluttered closed.

"You gave me the stars," he whispered. "I will love you for as long as I live."

She felt the brush of his lips against her cheek, and the tingle of the still-sensitive crescent beneath her eyes. Her arms tightened around him, holding him close and safe against her.

"Stay with me," she said. The words escaped her before she had a chance to think on them, and she held her breath.

"I was planning to."

Her eyes flew open, and she took in Shiro's soft smile.

"You don't want to go home?" she asked.

"I am home," he said simply.

"I meant Earth."

"I'd rather stay here with you," he said. "I mean. If you'll have me."

She kissed him, and even with the light fading she still found his lips in the darkness.

"Of course I'll have you. You can stay as long as you want."

"How about forever?"

She ran her hand along his jaw and traced the shape of his smile with her thumb. She grinned back; and maybe it was too dark to see, but she knew Shiro would sense her happiness anyway.

"That's fine by me," she said. "More than fine."

She settled back into his chest, arms wrapped tight around him, and he buried a kiss in her hair.

"I love being here with you," he whispered. "I'd rather be here than anywhere else."

"Me too," she whispered. The sunburst on his chest shimmered faintly, and she pressed her lips to the centre - to his heart, beating strong and sure and only for her - and to the mark on his skin, left by love they shared. The quintessence made her lips tingle, and she smiled.

"Goodnight, _marksglow_ ," she murmured. The lights on her body faded; the glow of Shiro's marks died down and winked out. But she held on to him in the darkness, and he breathed easily in her arms. They would always find each other - in the night-time cycles of the ship; under the stars of the cosmos; in the cosy warmth of the bed they would share for years to come.


End file.
